
Decision Points
David Makovsky
Decision Points is a Washington Institute podcast hosted by David Makovsky on key moments in Israel’s history and present. The first season focused on the history of U.S.-Israel relations, the second season examined key Israeli and Arab leaders, the third season explored Israel's contemporary policy dilemmas, and the fourth season highlighted books essential to understanding Zionism, Israel, and U.S.-Israel relations.
Season 5 dives into the Gaza war and explores the long-term implications for Israel, U.S.-Israel relations, and the Middle East region. In each episode, distinguished scholars, analysts, journalists, and officials will put the current conflict in perspective and discuss the road ahead.
Makovsky is the Ziegler Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and Director of its Koret Project on Arab-Israel Relations. He is a former senior advisor to the U.S. Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations, as well as a sought-after expert on U.S.-Israel diplomatic relations and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Decision Points is both a history lesson and an exploration of contemporary policy decisions impacting Israel, the United States, and the broader Middle East.
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Top 10 Decision Points Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Decision Points episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Decision Points for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Decision Points episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

09/23/24 • 54 min
Since Israel’s founding in 1948, it has never faced a reality quite like this: seven active combat fronts, including Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, the West Bank, Gaza, and Yemen. This multi-front war was once the vision of Qassem Soleimani, the late commander of the Iranian IRGC’s Quds Force, who referred to it as the “ring of fire” — a strategy designed to suffocate Israel through proxy forces on all sides. Today, this vision has become reality, with Iranian-backed militias entrenched across the region, waging a war of attrition and destabilizing local governments. How does Iran view its proxy network as part of its broader regional strategy, and how do the local interests of these proxies align with Tehran’s overarching goals? Why are these proxies so resilient, and, most importantly, what strategies can the U.S. and Israel employ to curb their power?
In this episode of Decision Points, David Makovsky is joined by three experts to unpack Iran’s proxy network and its broader geopolitical implications: Dr. Michael Knights, Zohar Palti, and Dr. Patrick Clawson. Dr. Knights is a senior fellow at The Washington Institute, specializing in the military and security affairs of Iraq, Iran, and the Gulf states. Palti is the former head of the Policy & Political-Military Bureau at Israel's Ministry of Defense and a former leader of the Mossad Intelligence Directorate. Dr. Clawson is a senior fellow at The Washington Institute and a leading expert on Iran and U.S. policy, with extensive experience at the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and National Defense University. Together, they discuss the complexities of Iran’s regional ambitions and the strategies to counter them.
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10/28/24 • 71 min
On November 5th, Americans will head to the polls to make a decision that will shape U.S. foreign policy towards the Middle East for years to come. Now more than ever, it is important to understand the critical foreign policy decisions that lie ahead for the United States. With the Middle East at a pivotal juncture, the outcome of this election will have lasting implications for U.S.-Israel relations, regional diplomacy, and the day after in Gaza.
In this episode, David Makovsky is joined by two distinguished experts: Tom Nides and Victoria Coates. Tom Nides served as U.S. Ambassador to Israel during the Biden administration. Victoria Coates is the former Deputy National Security Advisor for the Middle East and North Africa under President Trump. Together, they provide a comprehensive look at each candidate's position on these important issues. Join us for an extremely timely discussion on how the next U.S. administration could shape the region's future.
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10/21/20 • 36 min
Israel’s Ariel Sharon gained early renown for his battlefield courage and notoriety for his strident opposition to Palestinian statehood. But Sharon, who served as prime minister from 2001 to 2006, was not an ideologue. When he saw pragmatic opportunities to advance Israel’s long-term interests, he pursued them, explaining his leading role in the 2005 Gaza disengagement plan. The program entailed the evacuation of some eight thousand Jewish residents in twenty-one settlements in Gaza, in addition to four settlements in the West Bank, causing much dismay among the prime minister’s former acolytes. Yet Sharon made what he considered the right choice, thereby improbably advancing Palestinian claims to statehood. Gaza disengagement would mark an endpoint in Ariel Sharon’s political evolution and endure as one of his most significant legacies.
In this episode of Decision Points, David Makovsky discusses Sharon with two figures intimately engaged in the Gaza disengagement: Stephen Hadley, who served as President George W. Bush’s national security advisor, and Dubi Weissglas, Sharon’s closest policy advisor when he was prime minister and an architect of disengagement.
Clips Used
Israeli cabinet approves Gaza withdrawal 14-7
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10/14/20 • 37 min
For the past decade, Syria has been a killing field on which the regime of President Bashar al-Assad has been a ruthless perpetrator. As a result, international players now view the Syrian leader as a pariah. Under the rule of Bashar’s father, Hafiz al-Assad, Syria employed harsh tactics and embodied rejection of Israel, but the former president also responded to regional changes amid the loss of his Soviet patron and the end of the Cold War. Reluctantly, he flirted with an Israeli peace as a means to retrieve the Golan Heights. Now, as other Arab capitals pursue rapprochement with Jerusalem, the question reemerges of how close Assad and his interlocutors came to a deal in the 1990s.
In this episode of Decision Points, David Makovsky talks with three individuals closely involved in the Syrian-Israeli peace process: former U.S. ambassador to Syria and Israel Edward Djerejian; former member of the U.S. peace team and translator for presidents and secretaries of state Gamal Helal; and Institute International Fellow and former member of the Israeli negotiating team on Syria Michael Herzog.
Clips Used
Israel/Syria - Christopher Meets Rabin & Assad
SYRIA: FOREIGN MINISTER FAROUK AL SHARAA INTERVIEW
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08/17/21 • 43 min
August 13 marked the first anniversary of the breakthrough normalization agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates—a deal followed shortly by accords with Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco. In addition to strong U.S. mediation, several broader forces brought these countries together, including mutual concerns about Iran, Arab recognition of how Israeli technology could help their societies, and a desire to bolster the stability of pro-Western governments amid questions about America’s long-term commitment to the Middle East.
Now that some Arab leaders see Israel as part of a solution to their challenges and are unencumbered by the enmity of the past, what will it take to deepen these relationships and extend them to other states? How does the Palestinian issue play into this effort? And what can Washington do to strengthen the Abraham Accords?
To discuss these questions, David Makovsky hosts renowned experts Ebtesam al-Ketbi, Amos Yadlin, and Thomas Friedman.
Ebtesam al-Ketbi is founder and president of the Emirates Policy Center and the first Arab woman to lead a think tank. Additionally, she is a professor of political science at United Arab Emirates University and a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council’s Consultative Commission.
Amos Yadlin was executive director of the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University from November 2011 to May 2021. He also served in the Israel Defense Forces for forty years, including posts with the General Staff and as chief of military intelligence.
Thomas Friedman is an internationally renowned author, reporter, and columnist. He has written seven New York Timesbestsellers and received three Pulitzer Prizes—two for reporting from the Middle East and a third for his columns about 9/11.
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Hezbollah and Israel: Between Deterrence and Deterioration
Decision Points
07/13/21 • 40 min
Since the 2006 Lebanon war, Israel and Hezbollah have not engaged in major hostilities. Yet while mutual deterrence has averted all-out war, this uneasy truce is weakening. At home in Lebanon, Hezbollah is facing a dire economic and political crisis. Moreover, the group still seeks to convert some of its estimated 140,000 rockets into precision-guided missiles, a serious threat to Israel. It has also fired antiaircraft weapons at Israel from Syria in support of Iran’s presence there.
Is deterrence unraveling, and is a full-blown conflagration inevitable? To discuss this major decision point, David Makovsky hosts a new episode with Hanin Ghaddar, David Schenker, and Amos Gilead.
Hanin Ghaddar is the Friedmann Fellow in The Washington Institute’s Geduld Program on Arab Politics, where she focuses on Shia politics throughout the Levant. Previously, she worked as the longtime managing editor of the NOW Lebanon news site, where she shed light on Hezbollah’s political evolution and Iran’s growing regional influence.
David Schenker is the Institute’s Taube Senior Fellow. Previously, he served as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs through January 2021.
Gen. Amos Gilead dedicated most of his career in the Israel Defense Forces to the Military Intelligence Corps. As chief of the Intelligence Research and Analysis Division, he was responsible for producing the national intelligence assessment and other strategic analysis. Currently, he teaches security and intelligence studies at IDC Herzliya’s Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy, and Strategy.
Audio clips from C-SPAN “Israeli Prime Minister Remarks at U.N. General Assembly”
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The United States, Israel, and the Iranian Nuclear Program
Decision Points
06/15/21 • 43 min
World attention has focused on the prospects of the United States and Iran finding terms that enable them to return to their 2015 nuclear deal. Yet what does this mean for all the unanswered challenges that President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken say are essential to address in a “longer and stronger” follow-on agreement? How will the United States preserve its leverage for such a second round? What incentives will Iran have to engage in negotiations after a Vienna deal is reached? And what does this mean for Israel and the rest of the Middle East?
For the first episode of the season, host David Makovsky discusses this major decision point with three guests who have deep expertise on Iran, the nuclear program, and Israel’s approach to deterring it. Ambassador Dennis Ross, the William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, formerly served as special assistant to President Obama and senior director for the Central Region at the National Security Council, among other prominent positions. Ray Takeyh is the Hasib J. Sabbagh senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of the recent book The Last Shah: America, Iran, and the Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty. Ariel (Eli) Levite is a nonresident senior fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program and Cyber Policy Initiative at the Carnegie Endowment; previously, he served as principal deputy director-general for policy at the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission from 2002 to 2007.
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09/30/20 • 33 min
More than anyone else, Yasser Arafat relished the role of embodying the Palestinian national struggle—even his keffiyeh was shaped to resemble historical Palestine. Some depicted him as a defiant freedom fighter, but he would become reviled by many, especially in the United States and Israel, as an arch-terrorist. His sudden appearance on the international stage came as a peacemaker during the Oslo Accords. What led to that moment, and why couldn’t he clinch the deal to create a sovereign Palestinian state, instead returning to violence?
In this episode, David Makovsky hosts Hussein Agha, one of the Palestinian negotiators for the Oslo II agreement and a close advisor to Arafat, and Amos Gilead, former chief of the IDF’s Intelligence Research and Analysis Division. Hussein and Amos have very different opinions regarding the peace process, and this is the first time they have appeared together to discuss Arafat.
Audio Clips Used
SYND 7 7 82 ARAFAT INTERVIEWED ON FIGHTING ON BOTH SIDES OF WAR IN LEBANON
Signing of the Israeli-Palestinian Declaration of Principles
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U.S., Israel and the Palestinians: Oslo, Gaza and Beyond
Decision Points
01/08/20 • 41 min
This episode focuses on one of the toughest issues in the world, namely efforts by the US to reconcile the Zionist national movement, or Israel, and the Palestinian national movement. The interviews focus on two key moments in recent decades that aimed to bring Israel and the Palestinians closer to peace: the 1993 Oslo Accords and the 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip. The Oslo Accords were significant because these talks marked Israel’s recognition of a Palestinian nationalist movement. Rabin sacrificed more than just political capital for these efforts: he lost his life for them, to an assassin’s bullet at a peace rally in Tel Aviv in November 1995. A decade later, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon chose to pull out 8,000 settlers from Gaza. Sharon was the architect of the settlement movement and, therefore, had a unique political credibility to make this decision.
Host David Makovsky discusses this these moments with two individuals who were both personally involved. Tzipi Livni has served as Israeli foreign minister, justice minister, opposition leader, and head of the Israeli negotiating team during the 2013-2014 Kerry peace talks. Dennis Ross is David's colleague at the Washington Institute and co-author of Be Strong and of Good Courage: How Israel’s Most Important Leaders Shaped its Destiny (which features chapters on both the Oslo Accords and Gaza disengagement). He has served in multiple US administrations, including as Middle East envoy and chief negotiator in the H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations.
Audio Clips Used
Signing of the Israeli-Palestinian Declaration of Principles
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08/26/24 • 57 min
October 7 and the ten months of war that have followed continue to define public opinion and daily life for Israelis and Palestinians. This challenging period has recharacterized how each society sees itself, its relationship to the other, and its trust in leadership. Public opinion polling offers us insight into the evolving sentiments on both sides and what these changes might mean for the future of Arab-Israel relations.
On this episode of Decision Points, leading Israeli and Palestinian pollsters Tamar Hermann and Khalil Shikaki join host David Makovsky to discuss the trendlines and underlying nuances of Israeli and Palestinian public opinion polling since October 7. Hermann is a Senior Research Fellow and the Academic Director of the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute. Shikaki is the Director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah and a senior fellow at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University.
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FAQ
How many episodes does Decision Points have?
Decision Points currently has 66 episodes available.
What topics does Decision Points cover?
The podcast is about History, United States, Podcasts, Israel and Government.
What is the most popular episode on Decision Points?
The episode title 'Can the Gaza War Bridge the Secular-Haredi Military Draft Divide?' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Decision Points?
The average episode length on Decision Points is 43 minutes.
How often are episodes of Decision Points released?
Episodes of Decision Points are typically released every 7 days.
When was the first episode of Decision Points?
The first episode of Decision Points was released on Oct 23, 2019.
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